Self-Study Issues
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Standard Five
Committee Membership
Dr. Glenn Hisayasu, Co-Chair, Dean of Technology, Programs and Services
John
Elmer, Co-Chair, Assistive Media Specialist
Susan Bricker, Registrar
Michael Callahan, Institutional Research
Robert Chaparro, Professor, Counseling,
EOPS
Dr. Karen Gorback, Coordinator, Community Education
Nancy Latham, Assistant
Professor; Coordinator, Educational Assistance Center
Alisa Moore, Esq.,
Public Information Officer
Naomi Moore, Career Resource Specialist II
Gary Van Meter, Coordinator,
Resource Development
Standard Five: Student Support and Development
The institution recruits and admits students appropriate to its programs. It identifies and serves the diverse needs of its students with educational programs and learning support services, and it fosters a supportive learning environment. The entire student pathway through the institutional experience is characterized by a concern for student access, progress and success.
Issue 1: Adequacy of Student Services Staffing
Discussion Summary:
In each of the previous accreditation visits, 1996, 1998, and 2002, the adequacy of student services staffing warranted attention and comment from the visiting teams. Consistently, the visiting accreditation teams expressed concern that staffing needs were not being met and that the quality of service to students might be suffering as a consequence. While the College has made some notable gains in improving student services staffing, there continues to be a legitimate question of whether current levels of staffing fulfill the College’s obligation to meet the service needs of our students (R 3.11). Because the concern persists to this day, the question of adequacy of student service staffing remains one of our self-identified issues.
Since 1998, the College and the student services divisions have made a concerted effort to fill the recognized needs for greater staffing in support services, especially among the classified ranks. The task has not been a simple one due to significant College budget constraints, the competing fiscal needs in both staffing and operations, and the competition for filling positions among College offices and departments. Yet, in spite of the difficulties, a list of filled positions in student services provides tangible evidence of the College’s commitment to maintaining quality support services to students.
In several cases, the staffing improvements have emerged from the College’s recognition that the need was critical and warranted high priority; campus monies were allocated when funds became available. Some of our office classified/clerical positions were filled in this manner, because it was demonstrated that the offices and programs could not operate effectively without increased office staff. New classified positions in the Financial Aid office, Child Development Center, Transfer Center, Career Center, and Re-Entry and Women’s Center are examples of the College responding to student demand and workload issues. Other filled positions were achieved based on the same needs, but derived from funding from our state categorical programs. Categorically earmarked funds are somewhat less susceptible to funding constraints and the conflict that sometimes arises at the local level between competing interests. Thus, our ability to fund and fill needed staffing vacancies has been more fluid with our specially funded programs.
In addition, another source of staffing funds has come from grants and external funding sources. The College’s student services divisions have made an organized effort to seek outside venues of funding to supplement our resources, and to create funding for staff positions where no present avenues existed. As noted by previous accreditation evaluators, grant funding is not the optimal method for staffing office needs, because of the transitory nature of the funds. It should be noted that the divisions have been able to "keep the ship afloat” in heavy seas with these extraordinary efforts and dedication. The choice was simple: seek alternative means of obtaining staff to effectively serve our students or bemoan the temporary lack of adequate college resources and not respond at all. To the credit of the Student Services divisions, they have been uncommonly successful in obtaining grant funds, donations, and economic partnerships that produce revenues. For example, the Institutional Title V Grant has brought service advantages such as, providing funding for additional tutoring services for students in historically difficult “gateway” classes, as well as “outreach” staff to the secondary schools in the Santa Clara Valley. Further, the CalWORKs grant funded a job developer last year, which was especially valuable for students attempting to secure employment in a down-turned economy.
Along with several millions of dollars in external funds has come the opportunity to staff various service activities, provide support services and better meet the needs of our students (R 3.18). Not all the listed grants are directly linked to student services operations, however, a large number of the grants were student services initiated and/or have significant student services components written into the grant effort. An ideal outcome of a grant project is that it becomes an effective pilot demonstration of the project’s value and the College ultimately funds it when grant funds evaporate. Such an institutionalization of effort has previously occurred within the college’s student services divisions. A notable example is the Re-Entry and Women’s Center project that initially began as a New Horizons Trio grant and was later assumed by the College budget.
Also, the student services divisions have undertaken efforts, in tandem with seeking new staff positions, to reduce our reliance on personnel by increasing our service efficiency through technology. Some of the current technological innovations we are implementing include online tutoring, degree audits, an Internet Café, and extensive development of program Web sites. Increasing our technological capabilities promotes quality of and access to our student services offerings, yet does not require an increase in our staffing support.
The staffing progress that has occurred has been hard won, but further progress needs to be made. This fact can best be illustrated by a staffing survey conducted among the Student Success Team membership in November 2002. When surveyed about their most pressing concern for the near future, the majority of responses referred to staffing needs. Interestingly, some of the requests were for positions that interact with and directly impact our operations, but were not necessarily positions that belong to our divisions, i.e., Webmaster, and researcher. The following list is a non-prioritized roster of student service positions that have been identified by our Student Success Team membership as desired for our program operations. Please note that numbers in parentheses indicate the number of votes cast for a specific position.
STAFFING
| Technical Support staff for all student support departments (3) |
| Increase staffing (both professional and non-professional) to accommodate 30% increase in student contacts (2001/2002) and eventual move to new facilities |
| New positions to respond to program expansions |
| Teacher Assistant for assistive computer technician in open labs in High Tech/Assistive Technology Center and new LRC (EAC/DSP&S) |
| Full-time classified position to support Transfer Center (2) |
| Full-time Career Center Coordinator- upgrade of position |
| Full-time Transfer Center Coordinator |
| Increase counseling staff |
| Placement Services classified staff |
| Backfill Dean/management positions due to retirements |
| Full-time counselor for Transfer Counseling and online services (2) |
| Full-time Career Center Coordinator (faculty) |
| Webmaster for network software and hardware |
| Replace retired full-time counselors to maintain services (2) |
| Increase full-time faculty on campus (2) |
| Transcript Evaluator and development of degree audit and CAPP implementation |
| Network Administrator (2) |
| Part-Time clerical support for Student Activities Office |
| Increased clerical support for Counseling Office |
| Hire a full-time psychologist for students |
The staffing process at Ventura College since 1998 has not been upward and linear. The various student services divisions have experienced both staffing losses and gains (R 3.17). Most notable are several developments that have a distinctly negative impact on our operations. These are: (1) the retirement and non-replacement of several counselors, (2) the inclusion of the Technology Department responsibilities to the Dean of Programs and Services due to the non-replacement of a promoted campus administrator, and (3) severe budgetary cuts in matriculation and CalWORKs which primarily support staffing positions.
More staffing information is available within the text of our accreditation
progress report under Standard Five: Assessing Student Service Staffing.
Issue 2: Technical Support
Discussion Summary
In the past, the lack of technical support on the campus has been cited as
a major concern of the student service divisions. Since 1998, the student
services divisions have undertaken the significant and deliberate process
of increasing our technological capabilities and promoting the use of technology
as an enhancement to our service delivery. The effort to expand our use of
technology in our support services areas has been largely successful, but
the accompanying technical support to maintain these systems has not materialized.
Currently, the dilemma has increased, with new technological services in
place that are more pivotal to our students, yet the technical support staff
to maintain them is insufficient to keep up with the workload.
In the document Student Services Accomplishments, recent advances in student technologies are outlined under “College Goals #3.” Some of the more dynamic new features are:
- New Banner system with online student information and access capabilities
for students (Student Central)
- Document imaging
- Online student service courses
- Student services server
- Student services web site development
- Internet Café/open lab
- Numerous program applications
Each of these new technologies and those under development require that we have the ability to support the technical requirements and implementation aspects necessary to operate them (R 3.7).
The College has marginally increased the technical support on the campus, but still continues to have only a single full-time technical maintenance person supporting the entire overall campus operations, outside the instructional divisions and labs. For practical purposes, work requests for relatively simple technical tasks (i.e., troubleshooting a printer connectivity problem) can result in long delays and ultimately deferred services to students.
In response to the technical shortage, the College “outsourced” some of our technical development needs with independent contractors, such as our initial campus Web site development. In addition, the student services arena had gained some marginal support based on the implementation of the new Banner information system. The customization of the new student management database has had some advantages because it has allowed for modifications in software. This option is utilized more as we begin implementing more refined features and capabilities of the Oracle/Banner system. However, in reality, our greatest use for the Banner system has been the ability to do an in-house extraction of information from the mainframe. One of our College staff has extensively extracted data elements from the Banner system (through an Access software program) and designed tailor-made applications that benefit our program operations. This in-house programming ability to obtain and manipulate Banner data elements will increasingly serve our support service programs, especially for research, identification of target populations and student characteristics, and facilitating office work. Finally, the College has benefited from the increased campus level involvement of the District Information Technology Office. Through the leadership of the Assistant Vice Chancellor of Information Technology, the district has become instrumental in supporting college-level technical operations and is very responsive to our local needs.
Ventura College recently received a U.S. Department of Education Title V grant in partnership with Allan Hancock College, which was implemented October 1, 2002. The primary purpose of the grant is to develop shared Distance Education capability improvements, but it will also involve jointly working to implement an online tutoring system and computerized degree audit system. Finally, it will also fund a Distance Education/Instructional Web Technology Specialist position that will help the College advance further into distance education and the online student services that such courses will require.
For the student service divisions, the lack of technical support is
an issue of utmost importance. Overall, student services have limited
avenues in which to advance our service capabilities and offerings to
students. We are continually confronted with professional challenges,
such as shrinking budgets, inadequate staffing, changing student demographics,
and limitations in student preparation levels for higher education. In
order to meet these new challenges and overcome the deterrents, we need
to explore new innovations, delivery system methods, and techniques.
Technological advancement is one of the more promising means of ensuring
continued student support service quality for our students. Through technology
we can enhance services and office efficiencies, provide better student
access, improve staff performance, and offer our services in the digital/electronic
format that is rapidly becoming the standard and expectation of our students.
In order for Ventura College to continue to pursue our quest for technological
ways to improve our services, it is essential that we gain better technical
support for our existing system, as well as the next generation of innovations.
Issue 3: Student Services at East Campus
Discussion Summary
Several years ago Ventura College embarked on a campus enrollment plan
to expand its educational reach to the Santa Clara River Valley area.
The extension of the campus was undertaken primarily to increase FTES
enrollments, serve an educationally underrepresented region of the
county, and reach out to an ethnically diverse segment of the community.
The Ventura College East Campus is offering instructional programs
that focus on being responsive to local needs, business conditions
and community expectations. Initially, the East Campus offered a vocational
program (Manufacturing Technology) and some basic ESL skill coursework.
The East Campus has since evolved to include general educational curriculum,
additional vocational/technical offerings, and to date, has expanded
its enrollment to host over 900 students within that location and the
nearby off-campus sites.
Now that the Ventura College East Campus is educationally in full swing, the need to offer quality support services to its student participants becomes imperative. Offering services to this remote location brings with it special difficulties. First of all, the student services divisions were already hard pressed to offer comprehensive and quality support services to the students on the main campus. Aside from the ever-present fiscal constraints and staffing limitations, the remote campus location poses additional difficulties based on the characteristics of the services offered. In some cases, even when office staff could be made available, the programs were unable to offer the full array of services because the necessary resource materials could not be readily transported (for instance, the Career and Job Placement Center.)
In the case of Admissions and Records, difficulties arose based on lack of computer network access. Registration initially was completed as a manual process until the fiber optic infrastructure was established. Finally, there are student support services that will not become available to the East Campus until there are sufficient student enrollments and funds to duplicate the services in that location, for example, childcare services as offered by the Child Development Center, or medical care provided by the Student Health Center. These two support services have mandated facilities and licensure requirements that complicate our ability to offer them at external educational sites.
However, the College is applying for Proposition 10 (Tobacco Settlement) funding and seeking community-based locations (i.e., Santa Paula Hospital and Santa Clara Valley Job and Career Center, health care and day care) in order to partially implement such programs.
Faced with these service complications, in the 2000-2001 academic year, the Student Success Team formulated a task force to facilitate means and methods to provide support services to our East Campus students. Since its creation, nearly every student service program has organized some increment of service to the Ventura College East Campus. Some of the more notable efforts include:
- Ventura College applications and registration are conducted on-site
with A&R staff assigned at pivotal times.
- Financial Aid applications (FAFSA and BOGW) are processed
collaboratively with the center.
- Tutoring is offered on-site
- EAC/DSP&S accommodations are available.
- Health educational programs, counseling, and most other support
services are available although not necessarily on an ongoing basis.
- Matriculation support for the East Campus has increased steadily over the years. In the 1994-95 academic year, the matriculation support was a mere $2,200. By 1997, the funding rose to over $60,000 and has grown proportionally each year. A comprehensive matriculation support system that includes direct services (bilingual) in every matriculation area: admissions, orientation, assessment, counseling, student follow-up, and coordination and training has been developed. Unfortunately, this current fiscal year has brought a major reduction in the State funding for matriculation. The College response to the matriculation cuts may necessitate reductions in staff and less support for the East Campus.
Partnership efforts have also been formulated to utilize local resources to support our Ventura College East Campus students. For instance, the College staff has met with Santa Paula Hospital administrators to coordinate health care issues with them. Applications for “Family First” medical coverage are offered at the campus. Also, career development and job placement services have been coordinated with the Santa Clara Valley Job and Career Center.
The long-range prospects for the East Campus are very positive due to several supplemental efforts executed by the College. External funding that supports the East Campus effort have been obtained through our two Title V: Serving Hispanic Institutions Grants, and through our ENLACE collaboration grant. All of these external resources have been instrumental in promoting the growth and vitality of our East Campus programs and are needed to better serve the ethnic population in this region of the county. Among the many gains that have been achieved to date at the East Campus are significant student growth and the introduction of new curriculum and new support services. We look forward to such developments as our anticipated Spanish Web site.
Finally, the Measure “S” bond has earmarked $24.6 million for the expansion of the Ventura College East Campus. Included in the initial plans for new VC East Campus facilities are a childcare center, tutoring facilities, computer labs, and expansive facilities to house many important support service functions, such as admissions and counseling.
Issue 4: Student Services Facilities
Discussion Summary
Ventura College has suffered facility erosion over time. Having
recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, the College has characteristic
symptoms of aging plant syndrome. However, in some important ways,
the College has maintained itself admirably and has numerous amenities
and an ambiance that are very appealing.
The facilities that house our student service operations range from very good
to marginally acceptable. In several cases, the amount of designated space that
is allocated to a particular service operation is wholly inadequate, having long
overextended its maximum capacity limits (i.e., Financial Aid/EOP&S). The
cramped quarters in which some of our student support services offices operate
cannot, by virtue of their physical attributes, ever be considered student- friendly.
In other situations, the square footage may be acceptable, but the office layout
or appearance is not conducive to student traffic, office operations, or proper
student reception. Finally, there are student services operations that are without
designated facilities at all and have been “make-shifted” to operate
in various locations on campus. Regardless of the adequacy of the individual
facilities, one dynamic encompasses all these areas: student services at the
college is not centralized in a single location, or even clustered together into
a single recognizable entity. The scattering of student service facilities makes
it difficult for students to readily identify and access the services available
to them. It also complicates the effective referral of students from one student
service office to another.
Since 1998, there have been significant quality improvements in many of the student
services offices. The extensiveness of improvements to our facilities have been
dictated and limited by the funds available to execute such facility changes
on campus, but have been significant nonetheless. Most of the facilities changes
that have taken place at the college in general, and in student services offices
in particular, have occurred by initiative and ingenuity of staff, rather than
opportunity or ready access to funds. Almost every student support office on
the campus has had some noteworthy facility improvement that made their services
more appealing and receptive to students. Also, in a unique partnership with
the County of Ventura, the Ventura College CalWORKs Office is housed at the county-operated
Job and Career Center, directly across the street from Ventura College. Given
the extensive constraints, staff should be commended for their dedication and
their efforts toward improving the campus climate for their students.
Some of the more dominant facilities changes that have occurred in student services have been:
- New office for the Re-Entry and Women’s Center
- Major remodel of the Student Health Center
- Addition of portable Child Development Center trailer
- New Educational Assistance Center/DSP&S test proctoring area
- Significant architectural barrier removal projects.
The facility improvements for student services to date have been significant but pale in comparison to the facilities prospects for the future. There are three major facilities events that are underway on the campus that will determine the outlook and appearance of college facilities for the next decade and beyond.
The first is the current construction of the new Library and Learning Resources Center (LRC) on campus. This project, presently in construction phase, will have a major indirect impact on student services facilities, based on secondary and tertiary effects. The plan for the current college library building is to dedicate it to student services operations. The admissions office, counseling office, student business office, transfer center and the career center will move to the then-vacated facility. In addition, upon the completion of the new LRC, the tertiary effects of the office spaces being vacated will allow the other student services operations to be more centralized, more expansive, and better suited to the specific services provided therein.
The second major facilities prospect on the horizon is the recently enacted Student Center fee. This fee was approved by the Ventura College student body during the Spring 2002 semester and will result in a $3.5 to $4 million renovation of the Student Center. A planning task force has recently selected an architectural firm to design and oversee this remodel project.
The final and most dynamic facilities event is the passage of the Measure “S” bond measure that will provide over $115 million of facilities improvements to the main and East campuses over the next decade. Phase One of this project is already underway with numerous district, college, and community advisory groups participating in initial stages. Ventura College has formed a Facilities Oversight Group (FOG) and is including “experience engineering” techniques to help facilitate the design and customer (student) orientation of our projects. The student service staff is highly involved in this project and will ensure that student support needs are fully addressed in the creation of our future campus. These changes will resolve the current overcrowding problems faced by student service offices and will centralize student service operations, enabling students to take advantage of one-stop service offering.
Standard Five List Of Documents
Please note: All documents cited refer to those provided in Response to Recommendation Three
| R 3.7 | Student Services Accomplishments |
| R 3.11 | Summary of Staffing Report, 1998-2002 |
| R 3.17 | Staffing Gains and Losses |
| R 3.18 | List of Grants, 1998-Present |
Ventura College, 4667 Telegraph Road, Ventura, CA 93003 (805) 654-6400